Is this town big enough for the Tea Party and the Grand Old Party?

Wednesday

Apr 21, 2010 at 4:00 AM

GOP Convention shows some disconnect between the two

It&rsquo;s always a dubious move when the organizers of a rally have to release an email asking that signs not make personal attacks and that any comparisons between Adolph Hitler and Obama will not be allowed. But to their credit, signage-wise there wasn&rsquo;t much at Thursday&rsquo;s Tea Party rally in Lincoln Square that caused double takes. There were the obligatory fringe&mdash;the &ldquo;Tyranny Response Team&rdquo; clothing, T-shirts with the Obama in Heath Ledger Joker make up and declarations that &ldquo;Obama is an absolute socialist who wants one world government,&rdquo; but some recurring themes separated this Tea Party from the others that have made national news: a sense of restraint and a prevailing distrust of both major political parties.

Kenneth Mandile, the organizer of the Worcester Tea Party admits that &ldquo;We do end up with some fringe elements,&rdquo; but charges that &ldquo;the media has lost some credibility because the picture they painted of us&rdquo; in using them to depict the average Tea Partier.

Protesters hold signs at the Lincoln Square Tea Party rally.Mandile blames the external hype around Tea Party protests on media involvement. &ldquo;People are starting to see that the picture the national media has painted is false,&rdquo; he said, adding that even the Tea Party itself may have spent too much time focusing on potential opposition and outlets looking to discredit the group.

But you&rsquo;re all Republicans, right?

The average (Central Massachusetts) Tea Partier doesn&rsquo;t have a party affiliation, suggests Mandile, who says that he hasn&rsquo;t yet polled his membership, but guesses that the majority are Independents. This would fall way outside recent national New York Times and Winston Group polling, both of which show 75% of Tea Party activists are Republican.

Though in sync with Mandile&rsquo;s assessment, many at the Worcester Tea Party, claimed independence from either party, and some said they were even former Democrats.

But it is fair to say that no one there was holding up &ldquo;Vote for Grace Ross&rdquo; or &ldquo;Vote for Jill Stein&rdquo; signs either, and the politicians that showed up stumping for signatures and future votes were not as diverse as the crowd. Mandile says that open invitations were extended to any politician that had contacted them in the past, and state committees were contacted as well about the rally, but every candidate there seeking signatures has registered as a Republican or would fall under the Republican banner.

Jay Fleitman, a challenger for the Massachusetts 2nd Congressional district currently represented by Richard Neal, said he was &ldquo;pleased&rdquo; to have Tea Party and 9/12 involvement in his campaign.

At least three challengers for 3rd Worcester district, Marty Lamb, Robert Chipman and Michael Stopa stopped by to collect signatures. Stopa said he was courting the Tea Party crowd, saying &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any difference between them and myself,&rdquo; noting that they all look towards Fox News, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

Republican State Representative Lew Evangelidis (Holden) showed up, noting that he agrees that government needs to be smaller and that &ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to see people are engaged.&rdquo;

Did the GOP convention snub the Tea Party?

The timing of the Tea Party rally perfectly coincided with the GOP convention that arrived the next day with their &ldquo;Paint the Town Red&rdquo; theme, but a number of protesters said they weren&rsquo;t going because they weren&rsquo;t Republican or simply didn&rsquo;t know about it.

Senator Scott Brown addresses the crown at the Massachusetts GOP ConventionMandile said that he didn&rsquo;t attend the convention at the DCU Center because he too is not a Republican, but noted that a few Tea Partiers went, but &ldquo;not officially as the Tea Party,&rdquo; adding that a few were delegates from their hometowns.

But how much influence did the Tea Party have at the convention? Charlie Baker&rsquo;s Friday night pre-convention party invitation looked like it was printed on an old piece of parchment paper, invoking the Constitution, but the infrequently used mechanical bull and blow-up gladiator games in Union Station didn&rsquo;t really jive with the Tea Party&rsquo;s message of fiscal conservatism.

At the actual convention, any Tea Party overtones seemed muted as well. Speeches were focused on a positive, upbeat, change idea. Individual Democrats were hardly mentioned by name&mdash;even Deval Patrick seemed off-limits for anyone but Charlie Baker.

This wasn&rsquo;t something unnoticed by attendees. By the bar two GOPers noted that &ldquo;as opposed to running against someone [you&rsquo;re] running your guy. Positive message.&rdquo;

Only Congressman Barney Frank seemed to draw the most targeted personal attacks, with supporters of his challengers holding &ldquo;Fire Barney Frank&rdquo; signs and depictions of his head in a trashcan.

&ldquo;Barney Frank represents big government, the democratic machine,&rdquo; said Horace Mello of Norton, a supporter of Earl Sholley&rsquo;s. &ldquo;Barney can&rsquo;t relate to his district anymore.&rdquo;

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s contentious. People are fed up with Barney Frank,&rdquo; said Attleboro&rsquo;s Carl Bonnell.

Ronal Madnick of the ACLU had a table set up in the outer ring of the building, and even he seemed impressed by the attitude. &ldquo;People here are very cordial,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No hostile words at all. I don&rsquo;t feel the anger, the hostility you hear.&rdquo; Although he did note he was asked why the ACLU wasn&rsquo;t suing over health care. (His response: 14 state attorney generals are already doing it.)

&ldquo;There was definitely no anger,&rdquo; said state GOP chairwoman Jennifer Nassour. &ldquo;New Republican party. No anger, no hostility. Let&rsquo;s get something done, let&rsquo;s move in the right direction.&rdquo;

Even the delegates seemed to move away from the Tea Party candidates. Mary Connaughton scored 85 percent of the delegates, leaving only 15 percent for her opponent, Ron Paul-inspired Kamal Jain, to barely make it onto the ballot and force a primary before one of them goes on to face Guy Glodis in the general election.

Tea Party overtones also settled over the most anticipated vote of the day as well, as gubernatorial hopefuls Christy Mihos and Charlie Baker squared off over whether or not a primary was needed before the general election.

Mihos supporters sported &ldquo;Second Revolution&rdquo; flag pins&mdash;a 13 starred American flag with the roman numeral &ldquo;II&rdquo; in the middle of the blue field&mdash;a symbol synonymous with Tea Party causes and events. Mid-way through the convention a flyer spread around the DCU Center with a clip art picture of a piece of parchment paper in a glass bottle on it, with a check next to Mihos&rsquo; name for Governor and a check next to &ldquo;abstain/or other candidate&rdquo; for Richard Tisei, an openly gay, unopposed and Charlie Baker-endorsed candidate for Lt. Governor.

In his speech to the delegates, Mihos said he would appoint &ldquo;pro-family&rdquo; judges and that he opposed Tisei&rsquo;s &ldquo;bathroom bill&rdquo;&mdash;a (derogatory) nickname for a transgender rights legislation that adds the words &ldquo;gender identity&rdquo; to state anti-discrimination laws (putting it on equal footing with &ldquo;creed,&rdquo; &ldquo;race&rdquo; and &ldquo;sexual orientation&rdquo;). But voters shied away from Mihos, only giving him 11 percent of the delegates, and clearing Baker for a primary-free race.

But not everyone saw it that way. When asked about the atmospheres at the Tea Party and the convention, Lamb responded that it was a &ldquo;different environment&rdquo; and more like a &ldquo;business meeting,&rdquo; but &ldquo;the message is still the same.&rdquo;

&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any conflict between the Republicans and the Tea Party,&rdquo; he said.

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